Substrate-independent Minds at Extreme Future Fest, 16-17 December, 2011

Dr. Randal A. Koene spoke at 2:00pm on 17 December, 2011 at Extreme Future Fest in the Court Yard Los Angeles Marina del Ray

Extreme Future Fest is an event organized by Rachel Haywire and Michael Anissimov with the intent to bring together alternative culture, art and creativity with forward-thinking academic and scientific endeavors.

As described on the XFF web site: "Picture an event where the bridge between the counterculture and academia is finally crossed. From live tech demonstrations to futuristic presentations to provocative performance art to live music we will take you off the grid as we explore a new kaleidoscopic wonderland. If the original Burning Man was to meet the Singularity Summit, you would have Extreme Futurist Fest 2011."

Dr. Koene presented an extended version of the topics surrounding Substrate-Independent Minds, feasibility and ongoing projects that appeared in his talk during H+ Hong Kong.

Uploading the functions of mind to a substrate-independent implementation is a problem of data acquisition. There are three main routes to doing this, which we can classify as whole brain emulation (WBE), brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and loosely-coupled off-loading (LCOL). Whole brain emulation depends on our ability to choose the right level of representation for the functional components of an emulation, as well as tools to acquire the connectivity structure above that level (the structural connectome) and to sufficiently characterize the functions of components at and below that level (functional connectomics and functional characterization at large scale and high resolution). There are at present a set of projects that aim to satisfy those requirements using the knowledge of neurophysiology and neuroanatomy that we presently have and our current technological skills. Dr. Koene will introduce SIM and the concrete projects that make it a feasible and foreseeable goal for the coming decades. From a creative and philosophical perpective, Dr. Koene will place SIM in the context of new challenges and universal Darwinism.

For information about the event, see: http://extremefuturistfest.info/program.html

For a write-up of the event, see this article in LA Weekly: http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2011/12/extreme_futurist_festival.php?mid=559